guessing at what the Poet means. Though our search would have been very vain to find any such word as Asprey, yet I easily imagined, something must be couched under the corruption, in its Nature destructive to fish, and that made a prey of them; and I think, the suspicion has led me to the true discovery. that a Comment ought to be made when the Work does not need it, for that it will be impossible to make one when it does. I have been thrown into these thoughts by a Letter from a Gentleman, who has first in our language given proofs of an ability to do justice to an excellent Writer. Sorry I am that he is not allowed to indulge the inclination, which is accompanied by so much knowledge and genius to execute it. The Letter (which I send you with this) was occasioned by some discourse I had with him upon a passage in Shakespeare, which, through the error of the text, neither he nor I could then discover the meaning of; but such is his zeal for that Author, and such is his penetration in matters of Learning, that in a day or two he perfectly cleared it up. I cannot conclude without observing, that such a Critick as this might bring the name of a Commentator into the repute which it has lost by the dull and useless pedantry of some Pretenders to it. Such a Gentleman, and none but such, ought to republish an old Writer, since it is in his power to make reprisals upon his Author, and to receive as much glory from him as he gives to him."-Mr. Concanen very soon after became acquainted with Mr. Warburton, who addressed to him the Letter printed in p. 6; and to whom that learned Writer presented the MS. of his famous little work on "Prodigies and Miracles," a circumstance thus noticed by himself in a Letter to his Friend Dr. Hurd: "I met many years ago with an ingenious Irishman at a coffeehouse, near Gray's-inn, where I lodged. He studied the Law, and was very poor. I had given him money for many a dinner! and at last I gave him those papers, which he sold to the booksellers for more money than you would think, much more than they were worth. But I must finish the history both of the Irishman and the papers. Soon after, he got acquainted with Sir William Young, wrote for Sir Robert [Walpole], and was made Attorney-general of Jamaica. He married there an opulent widow, and died very rich a few years ago here in England; but of so scoundrel a temper, that he avoided ever coming into my sight: so that the memory of all this intercourse between us has been buried in silence till this moment. And who should this man be but one of the Heroes of the Dunciad, Concanen by name!" In the "British Journal," Nov. 25, 1727, is a Letter by Concanen on Swift and Pope's Miscellanies; and in 1728 he wrote the Preface to the "Collection of all the Verses, Essays, Letters, and I have no doubt but Shakespeare wrote: I think he'll be to Rome, As is the Osprey to the Fish; he 'll take it The change, you see, is very minute; and the corruption arose in the old copies only from the mistake of an A for an O. Now the Osprey is a species of the Eagle, of a strong make, that haunts the sea and lakes for its food, and altogether preys on Fish. and Advertisements, occasioned by Mr. Pope's and Swift's MiscelJanies." — In 1728, after the first appearance of the Dunciad, Mr. Concanen published "A Supplement to the Profund.". "In this Supplement," Dr. Warton observes, are some more shrewd remarks, and more pertinent examples, than might be expected from such a Writer, and are enough to make us think he had some more able assistant. Concanen was at that time an intimate friend of Warburton; and, it has been suggested, was assisted by him in writing these remarks; but of this there is no positive proof."-There occurs, however, on this account the following passage in the Dunciad, II. 299. "True to the bottom, see Concanen creep, No noise, no stir, no motion must thou make, Th' unconscious stream flaps o'er thee like a lake." Concanen dealt very unfairly by Pope," as Pope's Commentator informs us," in not only frequently imputing to him Broome's verses (for which, says he, he might seem in some degree accountable, having corrected what that gentleman did), but those of the Duke of Buckingham and others. He was since," adds Warburton, "a hired scribbler in The Daily Courant, where he poured forth much Billingsgate against Lord Bolingbroke and others; after which this man was surprizingly promoted to administer Justice and Law in Jamaica."-Certain it is, that Concanen's wit and literary abilities, however, recommended him to the favour of the Duke of Newcastle, through whose interest he obtained, in July 1732, being then a Barrister at Law, the post of Attorney-general of the Island of Jamaica; which office he filled with the utmost integrity and honour, and to the perfect satisfaction of the inhabitants for near seventeen years; when, having acquired an ample fortune, he was desirous of passing the close of his life in his native country, with which intention he quitted Jamaica, and came to London, proposing to pass some little time there before he went to settle entirely in Ireland. But the difference of climate between that Metropolis and the place he had so long been accustomed to, had such an effect on his constitution, that he fell It is called the dialer, or Aquila Marina, as also Avis Ossifraga; and thence, as I presume, contracted first perhaps into Osphrey, and then, with regard to the ease of pronunciation, into Osprey. Minshew, Skinner, and Cotgrave, all give us the name of this Bird; as do our Latin Dictionaries in the words Haliaeetus and Ossifraga. Pliny has left us this description of its acute sight, and eagerness after its prey. 'Haliæetus clarissimâ oculorum acie, librans ex alto sese, viso in mari pisce, præceps in mare ruit, et, discussis pectore aquis, rapit.' If it may be granted that we are come to the truth of the text by this change of one letter, it may not be disagreeable to go a little farther, to explain the propriety of the Poet's allusion. Why does he say that Coriolanus will be to Rome, as the Osprey to the Fish: He'll take it By Sov'reignty of Nature? In Does he mean, that Coriolanus in war is as superior to all other Warriors, as the Eagle, the King of Birds, is to all other Birds? Surely there must be something more significant designed here. short, I believe, Shakespeare intended to go deeper in his comparison. He has a peculiarity, you know, in thinking; and wherever he is acquainted with Nature, is sure to allude to her most uncommon effects and operations. I am very apt to imagine, into a consumption, of which he died, Jan 22, 1749, a few weeks after his arrival in London. Mr. Concanen's original Poems, though short, have considerable merit; but much cannot be said of his, " Wexford Wells." He has several Songs in "The Musical Miscellany, 1729, 6 vols ;" and was concerned with Mr. Edward Roome and other gentlemen in altering Broome's “ Jovial Crew" into a Ballad Opera, in which shape it is now frequently performed. He was occasionally a writer in " The London Journal;" was the Author of "The Specultists, 1730;" and in 1731 published a Miscellany, called "The Flowerpiece," * Εἶδος αἰεὶς ὁ ἁλιαἱεῖος ἐν θαλάττη διαιτώμενος. Schol. Aristoph. ò ad Ares, ver. 892. Ὁ δὲ ἀλιαίος καὶ περὶ τὴν θάλατίαν διατρίβει, nai ra' λμvaïa xéπT. Aristot, de Animal. lib. 8. ch. 3. It is also mentioned by Oppian in his Halieuticks, 1. 1. ver. 425. Pliny, in his Natural History, Dydymus ad Homer. II. p. ver. 674. &c. VOL. II. therefore therefore, that the Poet meant, Coriolanus would take Rome, by the very opinion and terror of his name; as Fish are taken by the Osprey, through an instinctive fear they have of him. But, that I may not seem to impose an opinion merely chimerical, I will give you the authorities upon which I have adopted it. 'The Fishermen,' says our old Naturalist, William Turner *, are used to anoint their baits with Osprey's fat, thinking thereby to make them the more efficacious; because, when that Bird is hovering in the air, all the Fish that are beneath him (the Nature of the Eagle, as it is believed, compelling them to it) turn up their bellies, and, as it were, give him his choice which he will take of them.' Gesner goes a little farther in support of this odd instinct, telling us, ' that, while this Bird flutters in the air, and sometimes, as it were, seems suspended there, he drops a certain quantity of his fat, by the influence whereof the Fish are so affrighted and confounded, that they immediately turn themselves belly upwards; upon which he sowses down perpendicularly, like a stone, and seizes them in his talons. To this, I believe, Shakespeare alludes in this expression of the Sov'reignty of Nature. And so much by way of explication. I do not know whether I shall have occasion to retract any part of these conjectures; but I shall be better determined as you either concur with, or differ from, Sir, your affectionate friend, and very humble servant, LEW. THEOBALD." * "Piscatores nostrates escis fallendis piscibus destinatis, haliæcti adipem illinunt aut immiscent, putantes hoc argumento escam efficaciorem futuram; quod haliæeto sese in aëre librante, pisces quotquot subsunt (naturâ Aquile ad hoc cogente, ut creditur); se resupinent, et ventres albicantes, ceu optionem eligendi illi facientes, exhibeant." De Avibus, p. 196. "Volitare per aërem, et in eo veluti pendere videri interdùm, tùm demittere adipis aliquid in Aquam, unde statim pisces attoniti vertantur supini: etiam mox rectà præcipitem ferri instar lapidis, et unum ex illis altero pede adunco suo accipere." lbid. LETTER LETTER II. For Mr. M. CONCANEN * at Mr. WOODWARDS at the half moon in Fleetstreet. London. DEAR SIR, Newarke, Jan. 2, 1726-7. having had no more regard for those papers which I spoke of and promis'd to Mr. Theobald, than just what they deserv'd, I in vain sought for them thro' a number of loose papers that had the same kind of abortive birth. I used it to make one good part of my amusement in reading the English Poets, those of them I mean whose vein flows regularly and constantly, as well as clearly, to trace them to their sources; and observe what ore, as well as what slime and gravel they brought down with them. Dryden I observe borrows for want of leasure, and Pope for want of genius: Milton out *That Mr. Warburton was an associate with Theobald and Concanen in the attack made on Pope's fame and talents, is indisputable; having been introduced at the weekly meetings; a favour which in this Letter he speaks of in very high terms of complacency and thankfulness.-Mr. Warburton, however, was not at that time, as has been generally supposed, an Attorney; but an assistant to a Relation in a School at Newark, having taken Deacon's orders in 1723. "This Letter was found, about the year 1750, by Dr. Gawin Knight, First Librarian to the British Museum, in fitting up a house which he had taken in Crane-court, Fleet-street. The house had, for a long time before, been let in lodgings, and in all probability Concanen had lodged there. The original Letter has been many years in my possession, and is here most exactly copied with its several little peculiarities in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. April 30, 1766. M. A."—"The above is copied from an indorsement of Dr. Mark Akenside, as is the Letter, from a copy given by him to esq.-I have carefully retained all the peculiarities above mentioned. If it contained any thing that might affect the moral character of the writer, tenderness for the dead would forbid its publication. But, that not being the case, and the learned Prelate being now beyond the reach of criticism, there is no reason why this literary euriosity should be longer with-held from the publick: "Duncan is in his grave; "After life's fitful fever he sleeps well; "Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison, H I Can touch him further." |